Climbers generally use clean protection devices for two distinct purposes. First, a clean protection device may be used as a form of safety protection for protecting a climber in the event of a fall, and second, a clean protection device may intentionally be used to artificially support a climber's weight. Clean protection devices cam or wedge into a crack, hole, gap, orifice, taper, or recess in order to support an outward force. The surface on which the clean protection device supports the outward force is considered the protection surface. The protection surface can consist of natural materials such as rock or may consist of artificial materials such as concrete or wood.
Clean protection devices are generally divided into the categories of active and passive. Passive protection devices include a single object which contacts the protection surface to support an outward force. For example, a wedge is a passive protection device because it has a single head with a fixed shape. There are numerous types of passive protection devices including nuts, hexes, tri-cams, wedges, rocks, and chocks. Active protection devices include at least two movable objects that can move relative to one another to create a variety of shapes. For example, a slidable chock or slider nut is considered an active protection device because it includes two wedges that move relative to one another to wedge into various shaped crevices. When the two wedges of the slider nut are positioned adjacent to one another, the overall width of the protection device is significantly larger than if the two wedges are positioned on top of one another. The two wedges must make contact with the protection surface in order to actively wedge the device within the protection surface. A further subset of active protection is camming devices. These devices translate rotational displacement into linear displacement. Therefore, a slider chock would not be an active camming device because the two wedges simply slide relative to one another and do not rotate. Camming devices may include two, three, and four cam lobes. The cam lobes on an active camming device are generally spring biased into an expanded position and are able to rotate or pivot about an axle to retract. In operation, at least one cam lobe on either side of the unit must make contact with the protection surface for the device to be able to actively support an outward force. Some active protection devices can also be used passively to support outward forces as well.
Active protection devices are generally preferable to passive protection devices because of their ability to cam into a variety of rock or surface features. For example, a standard four-cam unit has a particular camming range that allows it to cam into features within a particular size range. Whereas, a passive protection device is limited to a single shape and can therefore only cam or wedge into features that conform to that particular shape. Unfortunately, the largest disadvantage of active protection devices is their considerable weight in relation to passive protection devices. One of the heavier components of an active protection device is the connection system. The connection system connects the camming objects to some form of clip-in point. The two most common connection systems used in three and four cam units are single stem and double stem systems. Double stem systems include a U-shaped cable that attaches independently to two cable terminals on either end of the head of the protection device. The clip-in point of a double stem system is simply the bottom of the U-shaped cable. Single stem systems include a single cable that is attached to a single cable terminal located at the center of the head of the protection device. The single stem system generally includes some form of clip-in loop attached to the single cable. Alternatively, a clip-in loop can be created by coupling the single cable back to itself with some form of swage. Single stem connection systems are generally preferable for larger cams because they are less likely to obstruct particular camming placements.
One of the problems with smaller active camming devices is the limited cam range. Conventional small active camming devices have a proportionally smaller camming range because of the smaller space within which the cam lobes are able to rotate. To overcome this limitation, conventional smaller active camming devices have incorporated various technologies such as the utilization of less than four cam lobes. In addition, conventional smaller active camming devices have increased the camming range by increasing the camming angle. Unfortunately, these solutions generally compromise the performance and reliability of the active camming device. Likewise, active camming devices with multiple cam lobe axles have also been used to increase camming range. Unfortunately, multiple axles cannot be effectively utilized in smaller active camming devices because of the ratio of the minimum axle diameter with respect to the respective smaller cam lobes.
Therefore, there is a need in the industry for an improved active smaller camming system that efficiently increases camming range while maintaining performance.